Samantha Fish

Paper Doll Live

Rounder Records

Paper Doll Live hits with the force of a Cat 5 as Samantha Fish and her band blow ferociously through the MC5’s 1969 rock ‘n roll anthem, “Kick Out the Jams,” as if their lives depended on it. Everything about this woman’s allure explodes in just two minutes and forty-seven seconds. That Fish, all glamour and leather and sex in image, can be as emphatically convincing in the same space as Detroit’s famously ratty sons were 57 years ago, speaks volumes about not only her talents, but also the universal, riveting appeal of phenomenal rock ‘n roll.

Identity and aura figure largely in Fish’s songwriting. That initial MC5 explosion folds instantly into Fish’s “Paper Doll,” a dinosaur-thudding imprint of shaming for not looking deeper, past a woman’s surface. The title song to Fish’s 2025 studio album was carefully produced. Here, raw passion reigns, the effect far more convincing. In fact, Paper Doll Live, recorded at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee, features eight of Paper Doll’s nine songs, each of them far surpassing its studio counterpart and cementing the fact that Samantha Fish and her band are at their best live, on a stage.

“Can Ya Handle the Heat” stays the course. Fish sings the self- illuminating song in her bewitching alto-soprano and rips and slashes with astonishingly tuneful flair at her guitar. The band—bassist Ron Johnson, keyboardist Mickey Finn, and drummer Jamie Douglass—drips a little funk into the otherwise rocking juggernaut. Segueing next into a brilliantly reimagined “I Put a Spell on You” furthers the narrative as Fish and the band replace Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ iconic spooky melody with a menacing one.

Fish then introduces the McCrary Sisters (Alfreda, Regina, and Beverly Ann) for the confidence-building, fearless “I’m Done Runnin’.” The legendary vocal trio’s backing adds a tinge of gospel to the number without stripping away any of its fierce nature. The McCrary’s remain onstage for five songs, including the greasy, slinky “Lose You,” and the very appropriate “Sweet Southern Sounds,” a Fish-Anders Osborne collaboration that shouldn’t work in this aggressive context, but does.

“Bulletproof” speaks volumes as raging defiance and a craving to turn the tables, but “Miles to Go” perhaps best spotlights the palpable passion Fish conjures through her voice. The intensity displayed by the band matches it and elevates the blues to a place it belongs. Similarly, their run through R.L. Burnside’s “Poor Black Mattie” projects equal measures of blues respect and progression, not to mention a good, long, scintillating jam.

Samantha Fish’s impressive 2009 debut album, Live Bait, captured the 20-year-old and her band slinging their brand of rocking blues at a hometown Kansas City saloon. Paper Doll Live—available in 16-track digital (reviewed here and highly recommended), 15-track CD, and 14-track vinyl editions—succeeds wildly in presenting the fiery results of a 17-year dedication to artistic growth while portending great things yet to come for the next 17 and beyond.

Tom Clarke for MAS

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